Pokémon GO has been a sensation since its release in 2016 and even Los Angeles Police Department officers couldn’t escape the fever of the game. Six years back two police officers of the LAPD were so busy catching Snorlax and Togetic that they ignored a robbery happening at a mall only 200 yards away.
This news of two LAPD police officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell was first heard last year and the new dashcam footage released by 404media shows the misadventures of the cops and how they ignored the calls for backup so they could continue playing.
Pokémon GO: LAPD Officers’ Gotta Catch ‘Em All Quest
Niantic’s Pokémon GO has also been surrounded by controversy with people bumping into each other, traffic accidents, and sometimes injuring themselves but that hasn’t stopped players from getting rid of the adventure game.
Usually, when something goes wrong police are the first responders but in this case, police officers were so busy playing Pokémon GO that they couldn’t spare some time to stop a robbery. The dashcam footage from 2017 shows two police officers who were supposed to stop a robbery in a mall nearby ignored it to catch a Togetic.
In the dashcam video, two officers can be heard saying “Togetic just popped up” and hoping that Togetic doesn’t run away and drive in the wrong direction in a one-way street, performing an illegal U-turn, go over the speed limit in a residential area, tailgated several cars, and even zooming on speed bumps, all this while the radio calls are on. They were going quite fast as one of the pair can be heard in the video saying “It’s gonna go pink and change into something else.”
One officer can also be heard saying “I don’t want to be his help” in response to an LAPD captain’s backup request in the extended version of the video. The officers can also be heard discussing the Master Ball and speculating if it will be added to the game in the future, which Niantic did bring to Pokémon GO.
One of the officers can also be heard exclaiming “Got him” after they caught the target, not from the place of robbery though. Then the officers headed to a 7-11 after they got the Pokémon. This footage is of the time when the Niantic had improved the spawn rates of Togetic and the officers must have decided to make the best use of this opportunity.
The two officers were later under investigation by the Internal Affairs Department of LAPD and charged with on-duty misconduct. The officers stated that they couldn’t hear the radio upon being asked why they hadn’t responded to the radio calls. Once the dashcam footage was reviewed by a higher-ranking officer, it was revealed that they deliberately ignored the calls to play Pokémon GO.
The officers had also lied to the investigators as revealed by court documents. Both the police officers eventually had to turn in their badges. The officers together had over 20 years of history with Lozano being a 17-year LAPD veteran and Mitchell having been on the job for 7 years. The officers did appeal their firings but the court did not approve of their arguments terming it as “flawed.”
Pokémon GO has been popular but not quite as much as it was after a couple of years of its release and has been a part of several mishappenings. A stampede was also caused in Central Park after a rumor of Vaporeon spawning had spread. A study by JAMA Internal Medicine also revealed that the game is a big distraction for drivers who play it while they drive to catch a Pokémon.
What are your thoughts about the LAPD drivers ignoring a robbery to play Pokémon GO? Let us know in the comments!
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